Rise of the Phoenix II
by Gypsy Druid
Summary: The next stage of the Eternal Battle is in motion. Buffy & Willow are growing into their new powers, Karthila is on the move and the last of the Angelics is awakening. What will happen once the battlelines are drawn and what role will SG-1 play?
1. Chapter One

Rise of the Phoenix, Book 2

Disclaimers: All disclaimers from Book 1 are equally valid for Book 2

Rated: still in the 18-21 range.

Anything I've missed (disclaimer related) I can't think of it at the moment, but it still applies.

Chapter One

Buffy shuddered slightly as her grip on her girlfriend's hand tightened. It had been two years, but she still had problems being underground.

"Are you okay, honey?" Sam asked, placing a comforting hand on her trembling shoulder. She had gone to pick the girls up at the airport while Janet brought Dawn with her to work. Normally, Dawn wouldn't have been allowed into the top secret facility, but with her prodigy-like gift with languages, she had been given a special dispensation by the President to make some extra money by helping Daniel with his backlog of translations.

The MPs at the back of the elevator looked at each other, their curiosity clear on their faces. They'd never heard the Colonel speak to anyone so gently before.

"I'm fine." Buffy responded automatically. She cast her mind around for something to think about other than the fact that she was ten feet under a freaking mountain and going deeper. "So, are we gonna get to go to another planet?"

Sam chuckled. "You'll have to talk to the General about that."

Buffy and Willow grinned at her. It had been almost a year since they'd met General Hammond, and it had been rocky from the start. Then, their worlds had collided head-first when the former Vice President, who had been a thorn in the SGC for years, kidnapped and tortured Willow in an attempt to gain control of her considerable, but supernatural powers. However, his machinations caused a growing connection between the Witch and the Slayer to deepen and blossom much more quickly than it should have.

In the end, the young women had been gunned down, and subsequently transformed into a superpower unlike anything that had walked the planet since before the beginning of remembered history. They had waded through those responsible like angels of death, killing most of the responsible parties. Those that they did not kill, they left trapped in their own minds, immersed in horrors that left them screaming in mindless horror. Robert Kinsey, the former Vice President, and the man ultimately responsible, was left a vegetable, his mind having collapsed in on itself when shown exactly what he had brought into being.

Since then, Buffy and Willow had been sequestered in the Witches' Coven in Devon, England, where they learned to control their new powers and came to terms with what had been done to Willow and what the two young women had done in retaliation. Dawn had stayed with them. With Buffy's permission, she was allowed to train with the novices her age, but she was also required to do home schooling to catch up with her grades. She was given a minor break because she was a Sunnydale survivor, but with her brains, it hadn't been difficult for her to get back on track.

Joining them had been Illyria, what supernatural history called an Old One. Old Ones, although back then they had gone by another, unpronounceable name, had been servants to the Nine, although they could and occasionally did bind themselves to a specific power, either though debt of life or simply because that power proved 'worthy'. The High Priestess had been initially hesitant to allow the demon into the coven, but she had proven to be an invaluable source of information and a much needed training partner for the infinitely stronger Buffy since she bound herself to their service.

Colonel Samantha Carter, resident genius of the Stargate Program, and Buffy's biological mother, had stayed with them as much as she could. Thankfully, she'd had several months worth of accumulated leave saved up and, with her team temporarily sidelined because their CO was still in an alien stasis chamber in the Atlantis outpost in Antarctica, she'd only had to report back to the base for the most routine of missions, usually liaising with her father, a member of the Tok'ra, or one of the other races who preferred to deal with a member of SG-1.

Sam saw Buffy shudder again as they moved further down into the mountain. Without thinking, she leaned forward and placed a reassuring kiss on the back of her head. Although she wasn't normally a demonstrative type of person, after everything that she had learned and all that had happened, she constantly found herself touching her daughter whenever possible, either in comfort or simple reassurance. It had been a tumultuous year for Sam, after finding out about the war her child had been fighting for the better part of her life, and the fact that some so-called higher beings had intercepted the notification of her best friend's death, which resulted in her not being there when her daughter needed her the most.

Then, to make matters even worse, she discovered that a rogue NID project nearly killed Buffy when she began to question what they were doing to the demons that they were 'collecting' and 'studying'. To top even that, she discovered that her child had died, not once, but multiple times, and she had never known about it.

Her mood darkened as she thought about Hank Summers. She had finally managed to track him down. He'd moved from Spain after the first year, when his affair with his secretary had fallen apart after she'd caught him with another woman, and Sam had found him in Germany. He had indeed gotten the notice about Joyce's death, and the letter from Dawn regarding Buffy's death, but he had long since washed his hands of that useless, good-for-nothing juvenile delinquent, that wasn't even his kid, and had not even bothered to respond. Those had actually been his exact words. It had taken all of Janet's diplomatic skills just to keep Sam from beating the shit out of the prick, and Sam had told him, in no uncertain terms, that he was going to sign over custody of Dawn to her sister. He had protested at first, especially after he'd realized that Buffy had such high connections in the US government, but when Sam threatened to take it the Courts, he wisely reconsidered, and also agreed to repay all of the back child-support for both children that he had owed to Joyce.

Finally, the elevator stopped and the doors opened to reveal a bouncy, obviously excited Dawn waiting for them. When she wasn't with Buffy in England, the younger Summers had been staying with Janet and Cassie. When the new school year began, she had moved in with Sam and been enrolled in Cassie's high school.

"Hey, Dawnie," Willow smiled as Dawn jumped into her arms, hugging her fiercely. "What's going on?"

"Sam's dad is coming." Dawn said, excited about the prospect of meeting her grandfather. "I mean, bummer that they're coming cause one of their friends is hurt, but we're gonna meet our granddad, Buffy!"

"Who was hurt, Dawn?" Sam asked.

"Someone named Anise." The brunette answered. "Janet got this odd look on her face when she found out who it was. I don't think she likes her very much."

Sam wasn't too fond of the Tok'ra scientist. She was usually able to ignore the overly-arrogant woman, but during their last visit, when Jacob had been informed of what had happened to his granddaughter, Anise had tried to convince General Hammond, in her usual callous way, to allow her to run tests on the girls in hopes of enhancing their own hosts after hearing how they returned to life without the aid of a sarcophagus.

Sam had lost it, a reaction so completely out of character that she was nearly on top of the female Tok'ra before Janet could react. That action alone revealed how much the entire situation had affected the usually near-unflappable Colonel. General Hammond had had his own hands full trying to convince Jacob not to storm off to the facility where Kinsey was being cared for and kill the man with his bare hands, an odd reaction considering he tried to convince Sam to cut all ties with her daughter after the girl had burned down her school gym.

When the General finally ordered both Carters to control themselves, Anise, who had never seen the blonde Tau'ri so angered before, wisely kept her mouth shut.

Regardless of her feelings, however, the fact that the immoral Tok'ra scientist was injured and needed their help made Sam uneasy. Whatever injury or illness the woman had contracted should have been easily remedied by the symbiote. Squeezing Buffy's shoulder briefly, she stepped past the girls and hurried down the hall to the control room. Since Dawn knew where she was going, they followed at a more sedate pace, catching up on what Dawn had been up to since her last visit. Just as they reached the briefing room, klaxons sounded loudly, signaling the incoming wormhole.

From the briefing room, Buffy and Willow gawked with the proper wide-eyed amazement as the Stargate activated and the event horizon whooshed out before sucking back into itself to flow in place like a horizontal pool. They watched as a balding man stepped out of the pool carrying an unconscious blonde woman and followed by a brunette with a worried, frightened look on her face. Janet and her assistants, concealed in hazmat suits, ushered them into one of the portable isolation tents. Since the Tok'ra didn't know what it was, nor could they fight it off like they could any other illnesses, she wasn't taking any chances.

Buffy and Willow glanced at each other. They could feel the presence of the 'others' within these humans. Unlike Sam's teammate, Teal'c, these aliens were full grown and sentient.

"They feel sort of like Spike after he'd gone and gotten his soul." Buffy commented, almost to herself.

"How do you mean?" Willow asked.

"I'd never realized it until Angel lost his soul, but he felt slightly different than other vampires. That why I could always tell that it was him." Buffy told her. "After Spike went out and got his soul, he felt different too. Even different from Angel. It's like Angel's demon was chained by that gypsy curse and Spike's demon kinda, I dunno, evolved past being evil or something."

"So, if demons can become 'good," Dawn asked thoughtfully. "does that mean that the good ones can go 'bad'?"

"Hmm, I suppose it's possible." Willow answered after a startled moment. They all looked at each other before shuddering. "Goddess, what a depressing thought."


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

"Dad, what happened?" Sam asked from the observation room as the others entered the lower isolation room to move Anise from the gurney to the bed.

"We don't know." Jacob answered. "We received a distress call. The outpost is completely destroyed, and she was barely breathing by the time we reached her. We did not find any other survivors."

Sam looked down at the Tok'ra scientist. Despite her current dislike of the woman, she was truly concerned, and she could see that Janet was as well. Despite the heartbeat and her visibly erratic breathing, the woman looked like she was already dead and decomposing. Her hair was limp and beginning to fall out, her eyes and cheeks were sunken and her skin was a dark blotchy gray.

"I-It is a-a-an infestation." Anise whispered, opening her eyes.

Janet gasped. Anise's eyes were completely black.

"What kind of infestation, Anise?" Jacob asked gently.

The woman shook her head slightly. "Freya. It is taking all of Anise's concentration to fight the infestation, but she is losing. She has instructed me to tell you all that we know." She took a shuddering breath. "A Tok'ra operative had been captured by the unknown entity that is systematically overthrowing the minor System Lords on the outer reaches of what had been Anubis' territories. After extensive questioning, our operative managed to escape. Or so he was led to believe. By the time he reached the outpost, his infestation had been nearly complete. The symbiote had been consumed and there was barely enough left of the mind of the host to seal the Al'kesh and set the self-destruct. It exploded in orbit, but an escape pod crashed onto the planet. The pod was retrieved, but all that was in it was a cocoon of some sort. It was brought into the caves, and we were called."

"We know all of this, Anise." Garshaw said. "What happened after that?"

"By the time we reached the outpost, everyone was either dead or completely transformed. In their places, were horrifying creatures that we had never seen in the entirety of our existence. We tried to escape the moment we saw them, but was quickly discovered. They managed to cut off the path back to the exit and when we were captured, one of the creatures forced our mouth open and…" Freya broke off for a moment, taking a deep, shuddering breath. "It held its mouth over ours and something entered me in much the same manner as Anise did so long ago. Unlike the blending, I could feel in spreading through me like a noxious ooze. We managed to escape our bonds, and entered the sequence to destroy the compound before our escape. That is when we called for help. Unfortunately, at the time, we did not know that this was a mistake. We did not know what we were dealing with."

She suddenly broke off as she began to cough almost spasmodically. Something inky and black bubbled from her mouth. Sam cringed at the sight. _Must be that noxious ooze she was just talking about,_ she thought.

"Anise says that you must kill us and destroy this body completely." She finally spoke again, her voice weak and hoarse. "Until there is nothing left. Fire would be best. Burn my body until there is nothing but ashes. It will be weak at first. You must destroy it before it regains strength. The creature that will come forth from our deaths is nothing that you will be able to contain or control, or even kill once it reaches its full strength. We could feel the rage of the others that were buried beneath the rubble even as we left the planet."

Suddenly, between one breath and the next, the scientist collapsed on the bed, and her heart monitor began an fast, erratic beeping that had Janet in instant motion.

~~~ BtVS ~~ SG-1 ~~~

"Do you feel that, Will?" Buffy suddenly straightened from where she was twirling in the seat, bored.

"Huh?" Willow looked up from where she was helping Dawn with her homework.

Buffy rose slowly to her feet as she concentrated. "Send out your feelers, baby. There's something bad here. My spidey sense just went berserk."

Even though they were the avatars for the same being, the abilities had remained virtually the same as when they had been just ordinary Slayer and Witch, just a whole lot more powerful. Buffy still sensed 'evil' internally, while Willow sensed the tainted on the Earth's energy.

Willow did as Buffy suggested, closing her eyes and sending out her metaphysical 'feelers', searching for whatever had caught Buffy's attention. After a moment, she gasped and her eyes popped open in horror. "What is _that_?!?"

"I don't know," Buffy admitted, already moving towards the door. The guards unconsciously shrunk back and raised their weapons, but she wasn't paying them any attention. "but we need to kill it while it's still weak."

Willow, who had quickly joined her, looked at her mate in shock. "That's _weak_?!?"

When the guards yelled at them and tried to follow, Willow waved a hand over her shoulder and 'pushed' them back into the room, slamming the door and sealing them in with a still shocked Dawn.

"Okay, what just happened?" The younger Summers asked in confusion as she looked at the guards, who were back on their feet and trying to open the door.

~~~ BtVS ~~ SG-1 ~~~

The creature that had once been the Tok'ra Anise opened its eyes wearily and looked around. There were other beings surrounding it. Accessing the vessels memories, it discovered that these beings were the Tau'ri, the ones that parasite minions were attempting to destroy. Inwardly, the creature rejoiced. It that found the world that its Master hungered for. It would rest, regain its strength, then it would send out the call to its Master.

Janet and her team worked frantically, not even realizing that the creature was watching them. The heart monitor was emitting a long, high pitched sound which indicated that Freya's heart had stopped beating. She had injected the adrenaline and applied the defibrillator, but they hadn't gotten so much as a fresh beep. She was so focused that it was a moment before she actually felt Jacob's hands on her wrists.

"Stop, Dr. Fraiser." The disembodied voice of Selmac broke through her concentration. "Whatever has taken over Anise may not have a heartbeat, but it _is _awake."

"What?!?" Janet's eyes flew to his face, then to the scientists'. Her blackened eyes were indeed open and looking around in detached curiosity. She saw the mouth twitch in a near-smile and the brief expression of exultation move over the gray face before the eyes closed once again. For some reason, Janet felt a sense of foreboding and shivered.

~~~ BtVS ~~ SG-1 ~~~

Willow followed Buffy as she led them through the corridors. She could sense the 'evil' that had found its way onto the base, but she couldn't home in on it. At least not yet. Her sense of it was faint, but growing stronger. Buffy, however, was much more adept at sensing evil than she was. It was all part of the Slayer package that was simply enhanced because of the change. Now, she could even sense the 'evil' in the humans that surrounded them, although they did not come across it often.

The guards that they had left sealed in the conference room with Dawn had sounded the alarm, and the Slayer and the Witch had left a trail of unconscious soldiers in their wake. It was against their nature to play with time unless there was no other choice, so Willow simply 'shut down' their conscious minds. They would regain consciousness in a few hours, no worse for wear, but what they were tracking had to be stopped before it regained its strength, and they didn't have time to waste attempting to explain it.

"Should we bring Illyria to us?" Willow asked. The Old One had been sent to Cleveland a few weeks ago, once the growing demon population had begun to include those that would give her a decent challenge.

"Depends on what we find down there." Buffy answered.

They reached the elevator, only to find it guarded. Willow could clearly feel Buffy's growing irritation with the soldiers, who were honestly only doing their jobs. However, so were they, so Willow finally snapped her fingers and froze time around them, and the walked right past the unmoving soldiers. Willow touched the closed elevator doors, and after a moment, Buffy could hear the elevator move towards them.

"Nice work, Will." Buffy approved, kissing her briefly after the elevator doors closed behind them.

"Thanks." Willow smiled back, pressing her hand on the unresponsive control panel. "Where do we need to go?"

"Just take us up." Buffy shrugged, not really knowing. "I'll tell you when to stop."

Willow's hand glowed for a brief moment, then the elevator lurched, and they were moving.

~~~ BtVS ~~ SG-1 ~~~

Everyone in the isolation room and the adjoining observation room instinctively looked up as the alarms went off. Sam and Daniel looked at each. There had been no warning of an incoming wormhole. Then, Sam's eyes widened. _Buffy_.

General Hammond had already made his way to the phone on the wall. "This is General Hammond. What's happening?"

After a moment, Hammond looked up at Sam, his annoyance clear in his eyes, and she knew that she was right. He hung up the phone and looked at his Colonel. "Ms. Summers and Ms. Rosenburg have left the conference room and have left a path of bodies right to the elevator. They have somehow bypassed the elevator control and are headed in this direction. I suggest, Colonel, that you go find out what they think they are doing and get them back where they belong."

Sam swallowed nervously at the uncharacteristically hard expression on his face and nodded. "Yes, sir."


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Sam managed to catch up with the girls before they made it to the isolation room where Janet and her father were still examining the 'thing' that had once been Anise. She'd had to use one of the base phones to contact the security room to find out that the elevator that they had 'hijacked' had stopped on level 21, and had known in an instant exactly where they were headed.

"What are you doing?" She hissed. She was panting slightly from her rush down the stairs to head them off.

"There's something here, Sam." Buffy said, barely acknowledging her with her focus on the threat. Her eyes were the amber color of her recently acquired new powers. "Something beyond bad."

That brought Sam up short. She knew that Buffy sensed anything that wasn't human, more so if it was evil. The fact that she immediately sensed the larva in Teal'c confirmed that the symboites fell firmly into that category, but this hadn't started when the Tok'ra had come running through the Stargate. Her quick mind immediately made the connection that the girls hadn't started their 'rampage' until after Anise had collapsed and that thing had emerged. Her thoughts immediately shifted, and she raised her hand to stop the MPs that were coming around the corridor with P90s.

"What are you sensing, Buffy?"

"Something new, and yet ancient." Her voice had taken on an eerie, detached quality, as if she were responding automatically even though her mind had gone past the conversation. "It is pure, like nothing has been since the beginning. It is a servant of the One that would destroy all living things in its quest for vengeance and retribution."

Sam's mind flashed back to that night at the coven. _'One comes,'_ they had said. She had a sinking feeling that the 'One' they had been referring to then was the same that Buffy was referring to now. Taking one of the P90s, she motioned for Buffy and Willow to continue on their search, and fell into step behind them. She'd apologize to the General when the threat was dealt with.

Inside the isolation room, Janet, who had been ignoring the alarm in favor of a possibly bigger problem, jumped back in shock as black eyes suddenly snapped open, and everyone took an unconscious step back as well when the creature jackknifed into a stiff sitting position. Although still weak, it sensed a power very similar to its Master, but according to the information that the Master embedded into its genetic make-up, all others like the Master should no longer have physical form. This world should be ripe and defenseless for the vengeance that the Master would reap upon it. This news must be taken back to the Master. It would have to leave before its strength was regained. It jumped off of the bed in a swift, almost graceful motion, with only the slightest wobbling. It took in the other occupants in the room. Ignoring the human, the creature looked closer at the ones that felt familiar, yet different. "Return me to our Master."

"Who are you?" Jacob asked. Selmac was being uncharacteristically quiet in the presence of this creature.

The creature tilted its head to the side. "Return me to our Master." It demanded again.

"What Master?" Jacob questioned, confused. "We have no Master, and we don't even know who or what _you_ are."

"I am the Seeker." The creature said. "I seek out that which our Master desires, and prepares it for the Master's arrival."

"And what does this 'Master' desire?" Jacob asked cautiously.

"The destruction of this world and all that reside within it." The Seeker intoned, then demanded once more, "Now, return me!"

***I'm afraid that won't be possible.*** The Seeker looked around at the sound of the bodiless voice. After a moment, it looked up to stare into the window above. ***As you've just made threats against this planet, we're going to have to detain you for further questioning.***

At those words, several soldiers entered the room to surround the creature. However, before anyone could make any other moves, the Seeker was standing toe to toe with the one closest in a move that no one had seen. The young man jerked once, then gasped and looked down. The uneasy feeling returned to the pit of Janet's stomach as she carefully shifted around, and she paled at the sight of the arm penetrating the soldier's chest cavity. It pulled free with a gory sucking sound and the poor soldier wobbled for a moment before slipping to his knees, then slumping to the side.

Knowing what was coming next, Janet backed up through the soldiers that were raising their weapons, her eyes flickering to Jacob who was doing the same and pulling Garshaw along with him. Another poor young soldier died before the first shot was fired. From behind the wall of camouflage, she didn't see what had happened, but Jacob's exclamation and Garshaw's cry of horror were enough for her to know that something had happened. Then she had to cover her ears at the sound of rapid staccato of automatic weapons fire. She dropped to a crouch as her situation training had taught her, and didn't make a sound until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see the concerned gaze of Samantha Carter, and she could see Buffy and Willow standing near the door.

"Are you all right?" Sam asked. "Are you injured?"

"N-no." Janet finally managed. "I'm fine. What about Jacob and Garshaw? The soldiers?"

"We're fine." Jacob called over as he helped the Tok'ra leader to her feet. He had thrown his body over hers to protect her when the bullets started flying. "Four of these boys went down before that thing finally left. The bullets didn't even faze it. I could see the wounds already closing on the body where Anise's tunic had been shredded from all the hits."

"What the _hell_ are we dealing with here, people?" Hammond asked, still in the observation room. He had already made the call for his soldiers to desist their attempts at apprehending Buffy and Willow in light of this new, more immediate, danger.

"I'm not sure, sir," Sam said, looking up at him, "but Buffy sensed it from the briefing room. That's why they left. According to her, it's something 'beyond bad'."

***It wants to get back through the Stargate.*** Hammond told her. ***Colonel, I don't want it to even get off of that floor. Is that understood?***

"Yes, sir." Sam turned to the others in the room. "Garshaw, you stay with Janet. Corporal, give my father a weapon. Aim for the head. Maybe that will at least slow it down."

Jacob nudged the shaken woman in the doctor's direction with one hand even as he took the sidearm in his other.

"Too late, Sam." Buffy suddenly said. "It's found the stairs, and it's going down. Fast."

***This is Hammond. Initiate emergency lockdown procedures.***

"Let's go." Sam said. "The gateroom and the control room will be sealed and the computer access locked out. Elevators are going to be shut down as well, so we're taking the stairs."

Idly, she wished that Teal'c was there, but since nothing interesting was supposed to happen today, and SG-1 was still on downtime with the Colonel out of commission, the Jaffa had taken the opportunity to visit Master Bra'tac and his son, Rya'c.


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

The Seeker followed her senses further downwards into the stone and metal dwelling, seeking the gateway that would take her back to her Master. She stretched her senses on each level, going further down until she found the right one, then ripped the door off its hinges, the Seeker barreled through, only to stop short at the sight of the usurpers barring her way.

Like the ones before, there was very little fear from these being that once cowered at the mere sight of beings such as her. The Seeker sneered in contempt. Karthila would re-teach them the proper respect and fear. The Seeker took a step forward, then paused at the odd sounds as the soldiers prepared to fire.

The Seeker suddenly lifted her hands and pushed forward abruptly, and the soldiers were caught by completely surprise as they were physically shoved backwards. However, many of them had been victims of ribbons devices at one time or another, and quickly rolled with the momentum until they were back on their feet.

"Take cover!" One of the yelled. "Fire at will!!"

What remained of the Seeker's garment was shredded by the hail of bullets before she gathered her will and 'pushed' once more. The colliding velocities slowed some of the bullets while blasting others back in the direction that they had come. Men cried out as they were suddenly felled by their own bullets, and other scrambled to shield themselves. Taking advantage of this, the Seeker ran through the path that they made, ignoring the impact of rounds that struck it's back.

By the time the Seeker reached the Embarkation Room, the steel door had been closed and locked down. With a howl of rage, the Seeker slammed her fists into the door, but quickly realized the futility of this action. She stretched out her senses once more, looking for an alternative route. It also delved into the fading memories of the host body that it had taken over.

She killed several of the vermin that attempted to block her path as she retraced her steps to the stairway that would lead to another, larger room that overlooked the gateway. She would go in through there. Howls of fury reverberated through the corridors when the Seeker broke through the door of the large room, only to find that the blast door had been lowered over the window. She headed back towards the door, intent on finding another way into that room. She needed to hurry. The 'Other' was coming fast, and without knowing what it was and where it stood in regards to Karthila, the Seeker could not afford to be captured. Before she took more than two steps, she felt a surging of power and was suddenly tackled to the ground.

Dawn flinched at the sound of the door exploding. She'd ducked into the office that had connected to the room after the guard ran out when Willow's seal had finally released. As much as she wanted to help, she had no weapons and no idea what the situation was, so her best bet was to just stay hidden until she was either given the 'all clear', or found by the bad guy, which in her particular case, was probably more likely.

_'Stay out of sight, Dawn, and stay as quiet as you can.'_ She suddenly heard Willow's voice. _'I've shielded you so that thing can't sense you, but it's still got eyes and ears.'_

~~~ BtVS ~~ SG-1 ~~~

Running down the last flight of stairs as fast as they could, Buffy suddenly gasped when she sensed the creature they were chasing closing in on Dawn. "Oh hell _fucking_ no!" she growled, before leaping off the steps, like she was trying to tackle someone, and promptly disappearing.

"What the?!?" Jacob Carter sputtered. He had been shocked to see how fast she was descending the stairs, but vanishing into thin air was almost more than he was prepared to handle. "Where the hell did she go?"

Willow froze where she was and began muttering something. Sam could faintly hear the words, and realized with a sinking heart that the thing had broken into the briefing room where they had left Dawn. If it harmed her, there might not be a mountain left standing before Buffy was done.

"Where is the most secure room in this base?" Willow suddenly asked.

"The Gateroom." Sam responded instantly. "Blast doors on every possible entrypoint."

"What about the Gate?" Jacob asked.

"The lockdown automatically closes all the blast doors, including the iris."

Willow relayed the information to her other half even as she gathered her power and transported everyone instantly to the briefing room. She faintly acknowledged to herself that they probably should have traveled this way from the onset, but they were not accustomed to relying on their new powers in such ways.

The briefing room was in shambles. There were fist sized and body sized holes in the wall, and the conference table was had been broken in half. Sam and Jacob stood there gaping, as the Seeker took one end of the broken table and literally body slapped Buffy with it, sending her flying into the wall next to them with a cry of rage. With quick motions, Willow waved one hand at the armored window, somehow creating a hole through both the plate glass and the blast door, and clenching her other hand in a grab, and flinging it sideways. The Seeker was lifted off her feet in an invisible grip and hurled through the hole. Sam and Jacob both flinched involuntarily at the clearly audible thud when it landed. Buffy wasted no time squirming out of the wall and jumping after it.

Willow pointed to the General's office as she ran to the window. "Get Dawn."

~~~ BtVS ~~ SG-1 ~~~

The Seeker flipped back onto her feet almost immediately after landing in the room she had been so desperately trying to reach. She spun around in triumph, prepared to dial the coordinates that Karthila had embedded into its psyche, only to find that there was _no dialing platform_. Even worse, there was some sort of metal barrier on the gateway.

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?"

The Seeker spun around to see the 'Other' rising to her feet from her leap. Power crackled and rose with every step as the newcomer stalked towards her.

"You come here and threaten my world, kill my people, and you think I'd just let you walk away?"

"I will return to my Master with my knowledge so that she may wreak vengeance on those that defy her." The Seeker snarled. "You will not stop me from my task, nor will you deny her what is rightfully hers.

The Seeker tried to use her 'push', but all it did was disturb Buffy's hair as she continued to advance. Buffy retaliated by balling up her fist and punching in what looked like a vicious uppercut, despite the distance still between them. The Seeker was launched off of her feet and slammed hard into the iris that covered the Stargate.

"Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way." Buffy stated grimly as she stalked up the runway. "Either way, you're gonna start spilling your guts. If you want to make it literal before you start talking, then I can do that."

"You will get nothing from me, Neutral." The Seeker had finally managed to look into Buffy's eyes, enough to see past the physical body to the essence beneath. "Whether it is me, or another, my Master will find this world again, and when she does, you will be destroyed and this world will be annihilated."

"Maybe, maybe not," Buffy shrugged. "but now that we know your Master's coming, we can prepare. We just need a little more information before we put you out of everybody's misery. It's up to you whether it will be quick and painful, or slow and excruciating."

_Buffy, that creature will not betray it's Master.'_ Willow told her as she watched from above. She had resealed the hole that she'd created in the window and blast doors, then used her power to forcibly raise the steel covering. _'No matter how much you torture it. Just kill it.'_

_'Are you sure?' _Buffy asked her mate even as she called the Scythe to her. _'I've gotten really good at it over the years.'_

Above her, Willow rolled her eyes. "Just kill it already."

Buffy twirled the Scythe in her hands as she smiled brightly at the Seeker. "Looks like you've got lucky. Enjoy your trip back to whatever oblivion you came from."

Before it could respond, Buffy swung the Scythe in a lightning fast arc and, with a sharp clang, decapitated the Seeker. With a tug, she pulled the scythe back out of the iris. "Oops." She muttered, then turned and raised her voice. "Sorry, Sam!"

Sam didn't respond as she watched, wide-eyed, as Anise's body dissolved in a small puddle of grayish black sludge. She was just wondering if it would be safe to collect a sample, when the sludge evaporated into nothingness.


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Everyone was gathered in the briefing room. For the moment, General Hammond waved off the cleaning crew, wanting answers more than he wanted the rubble cleared away. The bodies of his dead soldiers had been removed to the isolation room that Anise had perished in. He also placed the base under Level 1 Quarantine, and ordered anyone that had engaged the Seeker to the infirmary for a complete check-up and to notify Dr. Frasier immediately if they had so much as a stomach-ache. He didn't want to take the chance that one of them had been infected like the Tok'ra scientist had been.

"Now, will someone be so kind as to tell me exactly what the hell that thing was?" His voice was soft, but steely. He'd very nearly had a foothold situation on his hands and he did not take those types of things well.

"It's called a Seeker." Willow said. "It's sole purpose was to seek out whatever it's master was looking for, and bring it back, or return with it's location."

"And how do you know this?" He asked suspiciously.

"We have Sineya's knowledge," Willow answered. Buffy and Dawn settled back in their seats with little smiles as they recognized Willow slipping into 'teacher-mode'. "and she'd created a few of her own in her time. We could probably make one of our own, but they kill the host."

"How?" Sam asked.

"They're like an infection, but instead of compromising the cells and tissue and organs of the host body, they absorb it as fuel until the host is destroyed, and all that's left is the Seeker and the previous host's body. If you could do an autopsy on one, there wouldn't have been anything inside the body, probably not even a brain."

"That's why Dr. Fraiser could find no heartbeat, even though the thing was obviously alive." Garshaw realized.

"Well, I want to know how you killed it." Jacob said, staring straight at Buffy. "That Seeker thing ran through bullets they weren't even there. The wounds just closed right back up. The damn thing didn't even slow down."

"Well, it was a demon, and Slayers kill demons." The Slayer shrugged. On both sides of her, Willow and Dawn rolled their eyes.

"Buffy." Sam said, chidingly. "I think what Dad wants to know is how your weapon worked against it and ours didn't. By the way, where did you get the weapon from? I know you didn't come down here with it."

"The Scythe is an extension of my power." Buffy answered. "I can call it to me whenever I need it."

"A useful ability." Garshaw observed. "Can anyone learn to do this?"

"No." Buffy said carefully. "For one thing, you have to be mystically tied to the weapon in question. This isn't science. Hell, it's not even magic, really. It's something way, way beyond that. The Scythe is a mystical weapon, created specifically for me." She paused in thought for a moment. "Well, not _me_ personally, but for the Slayer that I evolved into after everything that happened to me. I supposed it could have happened to someone else..."

_'Buffy!'_ Willow's voice broke into her musing. _'Focus.'_

Buffy gave her mate a sheepish smile. "Sorry. Anyway, it's not something that would happen to just anybody. As for why it worked against the Seeker, that's what it was made for. To destroy demons."

"Can I take a look at it?" Sam asked, her eyes bright with excitement. "It cut through the iris. That alloy is ten times stronger than steel. No metal on Earth should have been able to penetrate it. If we could find out what type of metal that it's made of, it would help greatly in our fight against Anubis' supersoldiers."

Buffy gave her mother an amused look. "You really don't get the concept of 'mystical weapon', do you?"

Willow sent her mate an exasperated look before she turned to Sam. "We don't know what kind of metal the Scythe is made from, but I can tell you that it wouldn't be as effective in anyone's hands other than Buffy's. It was made _for_ Sineya's Avatar. Faith can do some serious damage with it, but in Buffy's hands, _nothing_ can defend against it. The Guardians knew of the prophecy. They created this weapon to combat pure demons. Most of the demons running around today are hybrids, of sorts, or they are lesser demons that can usually be killed by the usual normal means..."

"Beheading is always best, by the way." Buffy interjected. "Kills just about anything."

Willow nodded before continuing. "But if the Seeker had been able to completely regain it's strength, the bullets wouldn't have even managed to penetrate it's skin."

"If that thing has a Master with a grudge against Earth, how are we going to defend ourselves?" Jacob asked, for a moment slipping back into the persona of a General instead of a Tok'ra. "The last thing any of us needs is for this Master to join up with System Lords."

"Very few of the minions will be at that level," Buffy said. "and this type of demon is the 'bow down or die' type. It's not going to join up with your System Lords. At best, this 'Master' will turn a few of your Goouds into it's own personal servants and just intimidate the rest into submission. The ones that it takes won't be Goouds anymore, though. Like what happened to that woman, it will take the body and replace it with a servant that is blindly obedient."

"I don't like where this is going." General Hammond finally spoke again. "It sounds as though we are going to have yet another war on our hands."

"Hopefully, it won't get this far." Willow said. "Now that we know one of them is already on the move, the other should be waking by now. We'll have Giles and the others go through the books to see if we can't find out where the Angelic was taken. Since events are now in motion, we should be able to find it."

"What do you mean?" Janet asked. "You make it sound like you wouldn't have found this information if you looked before now."

"More than likely, we wouldn't have." This time, it was Dawn that answered. Her voice was soft and bitter for one so young. "In situations like these, where prophecy is involved, information tends to be hidden until it's needed. Then it'll be right there like it was always there for the reading. Or, you know, until after the fact and it's useless."

"I was under the impression that this war that you have been fighting was no longer on Earth." General Hammond growled. "Now I find that there is something out there actively looking to destroy this planet?"

"It is." Willow told him. Sam had finally told them about the prophecy that Anya and Giles had revealed a few months ago. It had given them time to come to grips with the fact that sooner or later, the Avatars were going to have to leave their world to keep the boundaries of the Eternal Battle from overtaking the universe. "This is probably more of a personal vendetta. You have to remember that humans were thought of as slaves and food, and for us to have risen up and defeated a demon as powerful as one of the Nine, isn't really something that they're going to accept lightly."

Hammond mentally cursed as he took that into account. Until now, he had been content to let these superpowers fight it out amongst themselves as long as they left Earth out of it. He had ordered his SG teams to keep their ears open for any information of what was happening, but not to get involved if at all possible. Now, it looked like they were going to have to take a more active role.

"You are one of them," he said, looking directly at the two young women, "can you at least tell us how to defend ourselves?"

~~~ BtVS ~~ SG-1 ~~~

Eyes whiter than the purest snow opened for the first time in countless ages. Rising from it's resting place, the creature went out to look upon the world it had been exiled to. There was nothing outside of the melting ice wall of the cave but barren whiteness.

_'The time has come,' _the creature mused _'as the Elder prophesied. I wonder how the world has fared? Did Delcathas succeed in his plans for domination?_'

Those questions, and other idle concerns, flitted in and out of its mind as it waited for the ice to melt. It could have forced the way open, but it was content to wait and regain the strength that had waned during its slumber.

Strength returned quickly to the creature. It took stock of its body, and discovered a restriction. It looked at the odd shackles that encased it's wrists. They did not inhibit it's powers, but it did neutralize the ability to alter form. It noted that it's current form could be looked at with mortal eyes.

'_Now, what purpose was there to this?'_ The creature wondered. _'I have no intention of returning to that world.'_

Still wondering, it sent out a light pulse of power, which shattered what remained of the melting ice wall. It stretched out it's senses to determine where in the universe it was, and found the most odd of things. There were humans out there in the cold wasteland of this long dead world.

_'I suppose that we are not done with humans after all.'_


End file.
